The NEW 3rd Winner for the Sony Camera/Women’s World magazine drawing is….(drum roll)
Alex Steele!!
Alex was the 33rd entry out of almost 10K entries! Isn’t that crazy! It also looks like Alex entered by way of our blog! Pays off to read our blog! π
Congratulations to Alex!! Alex, if you read this blog today, you MUST post us a comment and let us know you are out there! Also, look for an email from me or Genie. We’ll be sending you a couple questions so we can ship your camera to you! And I’m hoping we can get all three of our winners to send us some photos from their new Sony Alpha DSLR Cameras!
And a HUGE thanks to Sony and Women’s World magazine for partnering with Me Ra Koh Photography on such a FANTASTIC contest! It was awesome to have Women’s World bring such huge exposure to the blog. And for Sony to offer THREE of their Alpha DSLR’s…Sony is the BEST! Check out Sony’s Digital Darkroom for Photo Tips and Exercises!
Have you taken your kids to see Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs yet? It’s one way to escape the Northwest heat wave! Yes, 103 degrees in my home that doesn’t have air conditioning! Sleeping with ice packs has been our best solution.
Since the movie is 3D, all four of us got our glasses. I wish we had our camera to get a shot of us watching the movie. Too cute. But when we got home Brian insisted that he get a picture of me and the kids. He said we looked “too cool” not to capture the moment. π We weren’t allowed to smile for the picture. He wanted us to be as chill as possible. The kids crack me up! They were right there with their chill character.
Brian did some out of the box stuff with his flash to get this shot. He wanted there to be a bit of glare in our sunglasses, and he didn’t want there to be a bright wall behind us. So he pointed the flash down and off to the side. Isn’t that crazy? Basically, he threw the flash light against the bottom half of the couch causing it to bounce up at angle–which created the glare in mine and Pascaline’s glasses but also toned the light down behind us.
The other trick he used was turning his flash power down. If you look at your camera, you’ll see a small lighting bolt with a plus and minus sign next to it. The lighting bolt arrow stands for your flash. Put your external flash on (not using the pop up flash). And then hit that little lighting bolt button. You should be given the option to move a marker up the scale toward the positive sign or down the scale toward the negative sign.
If you move your marker up, the flash gets brighter. If you move the marker down, the flash power goes down. Brian toned the flash down so it wouldn’t be too bright on us.
All this to say, experiment with what direction you aim your flash. What happens if you aim the flash behind you? What happens if you aim the flash straight up at the ceiling? What happens if you aim the flash at the side wall and tilt the flash head up a little? Get a familiarity with the different outcomes of throwing light. You’ll find a whole new freedom when available light isn’t available anymore.
This is one of my favorite “flash” photos. I love Blaze’s expression and the graininess in the image. Can anyone tell me where we pointed the flash for this image? And if you want to keep playing…what do you think the aperture/fstop, ISO and Shutter Speed were?
I’ll post the answers later today in the comments. It’s kind of a trick question, so be sure you look at the image carefully. π
Happy Monday friends! So much good stuff to share this week, including some of the great Bubble images you emailed me and the Five Finalists for the Vacation Aperture Photo Contest!!
xoxoxo, Me Ra
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Is that my husband?? Wow! How fun, we can be photo buddies! π
congrats to alex….
ok on the blaze pic….uh…..i think the flash is aimed on a 45 up and to the left, over his head….shutter speed, ISO, f-stop….what’s that? π
just kidding…ok, f-stop….uh……that’s the blurry number, right? uh….errr……1.4? no, 1.8? no, 1.4? right?
uh oh, does this mean I actually have to learn to use a digital SLR now? I never thought I’d win…I never win these things!
Hmmm. I believe the flash was aimed camera left, up above his head where the wall meets the ceiling. Maybe there is a light in that direction also?? The rest of it I’m SOOOO bad at but I’ll take a stab at it anyway, ISO 3200, fstop 2.8 shutter 125. Total guesses!
Congratulations Alex! What an amazing win! π
Love how you get our minds thinking. Humm.. now I’m dying to know the mix for the b&w photo. Trying to recreate it in my own house! ha ha!
If that’s a lamp behind Blaze or slightly to the back right of him, then maybe: ISO above 3200, F2.8, no flash, and a shutter speed around 1/60 – 1/80?
Otherwise, if flash was used then it was bounced back and to the right of blaze, F1.8-2.8, ISO above 3200 and shutter at 1/60? Am I even half way close? π
congrats to alex!
Me Ra do you have any idea when the copper/brown A330’s will be available??? I have been patiently waiting…
congrats Alex :)~
For the flash, I am gonna say up over your left shoulder, and 800 ISO, 2.8 aperture, and 1/30 shutter speed π
Congrats Alex!! You will love your new camera!!
ahhhh, ceiling just in front of the mirror. or maybe, since it’s a trick question, it’s really being beamed from a building a mile away b/c the batman sign is ON BLAZE’S HAND!!! THAT’S IT!! THE COMMISSIONER’S NEEDS HELP! whoops, sorry,got carried away. ISO, Fstop…yep, waiting for that pretty camera with the slide/scale thingie…Congrats Alex!! looking forward to seeing what you’re gonna do!
OK I think ISO was around 1000+, Flash was point up and toward the mirrors on the back wall. F 1.8 or 1.4 and shutter speed hmmmm gonna say 1/60
Congrats Alex!
I also think there is a lamp behind Blaze’s head…so now I may re-adjust my thinking on flash positioning…
My son (a Star Wars Junkie) just came in and looked over my shoulder. “Are those the people that really like Star Wars?” he asks. “They are funny.” Then he turns and walks out of the room. π
I think the flash was thrown right and back a bit. ISO was high with the grain, but I guess it depends on which camera you used. If you (or maybe it was Brian shooting?) used Lulu, I say 6400. F2.8. Shutter 1/80.
Deanna, you could tell by just looking at it, huh! π She was right!
My ISO wasn’t high. It was only 800. The reason the image has grain is because I up’d the Contrast and Blacks in Lightroom. I normally don’t make the BW that extreme, but I tried getting out of the box and playing with the image. I like how it turned out. The ISO part was the trick part. π Did I get you?
The aperture/fstop was 2.8. You can tell that it was low b/c Pascaline is blurred in the background.
The shutter speed was 1/30th of a second. You’ve got to love the Super Steady Shot feature in the Sony cameras!
And the flash was bounced right off the side wall next to Blaze’s head.
Thanks for playing! We should do more pop quizzes! I loved reading all your guesses!
And CA, what your son said is HILARIOUS! And Jeramy, does Sharon need to take a third workshop with us so you can remember what fstops are? π
i’m thinking a new direction actually….have brian offer guy workshops….we promise we’ll pick up the cameras at least once.
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